To the Edge and Back [The Royal Wolves] (Siren Publishing Allure) (8 page)

Smiling at her words, he relaxed his hold a little as he watched her. “I probably shouldn’t say it, but I’m glad you missed me. I’ve definitely missed you.” Like she couldn’t have figured that out considering the dream he’d yanked her into earlier that day. “It’s been pure hell forcing myself to stay away from you this week. I’ve caught myself walking out the door to come here and had to turn back around and find something to do that would keep me busy.”

Shifting slightly, he rubbed her back lightly. “What kind of job are you thinking about doing this time around?” he asked quietly.

She shrugged and toyed with his shirt. “No idea.” She didn’t have a college degree, so she wasn’t a massive asset to anyone, but she was a fast learner, and if she had to she would work at the local fast food place, it would be fine. “You could have come to see me, Janos,” she heard herself mutter and shook her head. “I just didn’t want you to expect phone calls from me, which was why I said a week.” It had been a hell of a week, too.

“Janos, can I ask a question?” This time she pulled back to look up at him, and when he told her “of course,” she asked, “Do all of the Wolf Packs wear gang-like colors?” She really did have a good reason to ask.

It seemed that the first man that found her wore blue and black, and on Tuesday when she got on the bus, it was as if the whole bus had half of them blue and black and half of them white and red, and both sides seemed to be ready to kill the other side. The men in the white and red welcomed her, cocooned her into their center, and kept her occupied, while the others looked ready to kill. It was the most surreal thing she had ever before encountered.

Frowning, he nodded slowly. “The Packs wear the colors of their original flags of whoever their ruling lord was at the time before the Royal fall. They wear them to identify what side they are on and who they have allegiance to.” Stroking back her hair gently, he shook his head. “Why do you ask, Mina?” He was curious from where the question came.

“So why don’t you wear colors like that?” She answered his question with a question. It was odd. She had sat there in disbelief all night, hadn’t slept, and now that he was holding her close and stroking her hair she felt like a warm kitten and could have almost purred in reaction. Her eyes closed and she nuzzled against his shoulder as she pulled her legs in closer. “Do you work tonight?” If so, she needed a nap today so that she could stay up all night and into tomorrow for her job searching.

“I was working but nearly bit off a waitress’s head, so I came here instead,” he told her softly as he shifted so she would be more comfortable. “I don’t wear colors because I’m technically a lord and could wear our house colors, but since they are the colors of the Royal line it would be just faster to shoot myself instead. Remember,” he said when she twitched her head up to look at him, “we’re not exactly well liked for whatever crazed reason by many of the Packs.”

“Right, good point.” She smiled and patted his chest. “I like you well enough when you’re not growling at me. When you growl at me though, you make me want to kick you,” she muttered.

“You can kick me any time you want,” he told her, “as long as you promise to kiss it better at a date and time of my choosing,” he teased.

She moved slightly and sighed happily. She was exhausted, mentally, physically, but most of all, emotionally. “So what are the colors of the Royal line? I’m sure that they aren’t worn very often, which is kind of sad really.”

“The Royal colors are silver and black with a lightning bolt of bright blue corner to corner of whatever it’s on. And no”—he shook his head—“they haven’t been worn since the death of my parents in 1818. We all have pieces from our childhood in those colors, but since coming to the States we’ve never even taken them out let alone gotten new pieces made in the colors.”

“I’m so sorry.” She hurt for him. She had never had parents, but he had, and he recalled them, and for them to have been taken from him as they had been, it made her sad for him. “What about blue and black and then white and red?”

She was curious now about the two opposites that had nearly given the normal driver a heart attack on her way to work that day. It had been the most insane part of her day, which didn’t say much, as she was normally a boring kind of woman anyway. “And I will kiss it and make it better anytime,” she mumbled now as she felt more and more of his heat penetrating into her very soul. She should get up and make something for them to eat, but ramen noodles didn’t appeal right now, so for now she was perfectly happy being held in his arms as she was.

“Well, if I remember my history”—he frowned slightly—“blue and black was Lord Fekete, not our family’s most avid supporter. Hell, I’m pretty sure he tried to run my father through with a blade on the field even though he claimed he stumbled. As for the red and white, that would have been Lord Feher, who was a close family friend and lost a son during the slaughter of my parents and other family members, as he was there for the dinner.”

Right, well that explained that. “So the one who initially sniffed me, I should likely avoid, right?” Duh, her mind shouted at her. She was a human and they were Wolves, honest-to-god, tear-you-limb-from-limb Wolves.

“Yes, I’d avoid them like the plague,” he told her even as he wanted to know why she’d asked about the colors, but he had a feeling it had to do with her bus ride that first time.

“Can I admit something to you?” she asked quietly, eyes closed and hand now stilled from its soft and gentle caresses of his chest.

Kissing her forehead gently, he hugged her. “You can tell me anything anytime you feel like it no matter what it is, honey,” he assured her softly.

When he told her she could admit anything to him at anytime, she whispered quietly so no one but him could hear, “I’m scared, but I think I might want to try for a possibility of something with you, Janos. Mark me so that when something happens, you can at least have revenge and not be hunted for it.”

Just like that his breath stopped moving in his lungs and he stared blindly across the room. “Nothing’s going to happen to you, Mina,” he whispered softly. Hugging her closer, he shook his head. “Nothing is going to happen,” he said again.

He wanted to mark her though with more than his scent, but…“Honey, if I mark you…are you sure you’re ready for what might come of it?” he asked her with uncertainty in his voice. “They know the scent of my lineage, and to find you marked…” He swallowed hard. “If they catch you alone, Mina, it won’t be an easy death by any means,” Janos warned her, not sure just what he should or shouldn’t tell her.

“Janos, they have found me already,” she reminded him simply and then sighed. “Tuesday the bus I normally take back and forth to work was packed, not a normal thing, right? However, it was packed, half with those of white and red, who, believe it or not, I think were oddly there to protect me, and half with black and blue.” So she knew that she wasn’t exactly the safest person on the planet right now. “If I can have a small amount of happiness, shouldn’t I?”

“They were,” he said softly to her as he hugged her a little tighter. “White and red, white and green, green and blue are all on our side. There are a few others but these I know are in large enough numbers in the city. Anything other than those colors, run,” he told her as he wondered how the hell he was going to protect her.

If he marked her, then she might be taken just to spite him, and no one would ever give up whomever the killer turned out to be. He could mate with her and same deal. Her only real chance was to go through the transition and become Wolf, but he also knew she was nowhere near ready.

She shrugged. There was nothing to be done about it. It simply was what it was and there was no amount of wishing that would change anything. She’d learned that years ago. “Anyway, for now I’m safe and you’re here with me.” She looked up at him and smiled. “So see, these are two very good things, right?” Patting his chest, she sighed. “You worry too much, Janos. Please don’t worry about me, all right?”

“You’re my mate, Mina. I’m allowed to worry about you. It’s my god-given right,” he said, softly kissing the tip of her nose. “And I have nowhere I need to be. If my staff needs me, they know to call Max.” He grinned slightly. “I just want to hold you, Mina. Can I do that tonight?” he asked carefully.

“I would like that very much, Janos.” She did give him a quirky grin and then a little sadly admitted, “I will miss my weekly chats with Maxi. He really is funny and was just one of the clients I could always count on to call me when I needed it.” She shrugged and then moved slightly. “My bed is not the largest of places, but if we are face to face we can sleep in there together.” Her bed was a full size, and he was, well, he was massive.

“You know you could still call him to chat, right?” he said, trying to keep the jealousy down. He was Wolf though and was fighting his instincts to even say the words.

Sliding his one arm under her knees, he stood with her in his arms cradled close to him. Heading down the hall, he paused as he looked into her room and moved in slowly, stopping once he reached the bed, and let her legs slide down. “I’m going to go and make sure we’re locked up tight so you can get ready. I’ll be back in five,” he told her, stroking her cheek once before stepping back slightly.

She caught his hand and shook her head. “I can’t call him.” She shrugged. “Besides, I’m sure that Veronica will take very good care of him.” Veronica was one of her previous coworkers who always made a point to meet all of the clients, in the most intimate ways possible. “Go, the locks are all thumb turn and the windows have never opened, so…” She shrugged and let his hand go. “I will be the one sleeping when you come back,” she teased.

Smiling at her, he nodded and stepped from the room, moving quickly through her apartment. Locking the door fully, he turned off the lights as he went, leaving a small table lamp on for a soft light in the outer room. Kicking his shoes off at the door, he hung up his jacket and left his wallet and keys in the pocket. Palming his phone, he went back to the bedroom and set it on the bedside table before using her bathroom quickly and then lying on the bed. Stroking her hair lightly, he eased closer and wrapped his arms around her gently.

She turned so that she faced him and sighed as he pulled her close. It felt strange. Here he was, a complete stranger, but she felt safer with him than she ever had in all her life. “I know I should cover us up, but I don’t think we will need it being fully dressed and all.”

Shaking his head slightly, he grinned. “I put out a bit of heat, too, a little more than a human male. You will be warm enough, I’m sure,” he told her softly. Kissing her cheek gently, he moved his lips to her throat and kissed her pulse. “In the morning we’ll talk about me marking you. For now, sweetheart, I want you to rest.”

She wanted that, too. Tomorrow everything would be better. Tomorrow they would have their talk, he could go and do what he had to, and she could go and look for a job. Moving closer to him, she slipped a leg between his, even as her arms wrapped around his, middle and held onto him. “Rest sounds very good.” She wanted to dream of him, feel him holding her here, and in her dreams. “Sleep, Mina,” was the last thing that she heard from him before she surrendered to slumber.

Letting his eyes close, he relaxed fully and joined her moments later in a pool of heated water. Swimming toward her slowly, he caught her wet body to his and kissed her gently, his arms holding her close.

She smiled up at him as she allowed him to keep them afloat in the heated water. “Hello, Janos.” She pressed her nose to the crook of his neck and inhaled deeply. “I love the way you smell. If I smell like that, too, it’s a good scent.”

She was so free in her dreams, able to love him and make love with him without hesitation. “What is this place?” she asked as she looked around the cavern. Sparkling gems lined the walls and the heat seemed to curl up from the water and into the cave itself.

“It’s one of my childhood getaways in the north of Scotland. We grew up for the most part in England, but once a year in the fall we’d go north to just spend time in nature. This was one of my places that I liked to stay in for a week at a time. I would build a fire in the corner to keep warm, and the water is fed by an underground set of heated springs. It dribbles in to keep it warm but the cooler water of the mountain keeps it from being too hot.”

“I like it a lot, Janos.” She wished that one day they could go there and asked, “Can we maybe one day in the future come here?” One day far in the future when she had saved up enough money. “Will we always be able to share in dreams, Janos, or is this something that is only for the beginnings of everything?”

“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, honey,” he promised with a smile. “The dreams will continue into the mating but not nearly so desperate in nature. During the mating it’s hot and heavy, like a flash fire. But after the mating it calms a bit and gives us the option of being together even in our rest.”

“I think I would really like that, Janos.” She looked up at him and asked, “What are the downsides to being mated? You have told me that I would be hunted, but you know as well as I do that I already am, aren’t I?” She wasn’t a stupid person, by any stretch of imagination.

Nodding slowly, he sighed softly as he moved toward the ledge and sat with her straddling his lap. Stroking her back gently, he looked into her eyes. “You’ll have to put up with one hell of a possessive mate. Wolves don’t take kindly to other men around their women, but we do try for their sake. You’ll also have to tolerate my four older brothers and all their ‘advice.’” He grunted at that. “You will be hunted as my mate, claimed or not. But as my mate fully, you’ll be very well protected.”

“I’m not much of a social person, so you wouldn’t have to worry about me being with other men or even around other men.” She shrugged. “Is it true that Wolves mate for life, Janos? If we were to mate and something happened to me, would you be able to go on and find happiness with someone else?” Her hands moved up and down his shoulders, leaning in closer to him as she did so.